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Spawnlingman 8 points ago +8 / -0

I'm a 40 year old white male. In fact. I'm a blue eyed red headed Irish. I'm the rarest minority in the world. :D

I was homeschooled by a very reclusive religious family. No college. I left home the day I turned 18 and loved in a little 1 bedroom apartment for $560 a month in Baltimore city. A bad area. This was in 1998. I could barely pay my bills. I was learning computer courses from books I got from the library. I didnt go party or waste what little financial resources I had. I was working as a temp for $8 organizing file folders in a back room of a mortgage company.

Before this I had worked at dunking donuts from the time I was 15 to 17. I had to bike 6.5 miles to work because my parents wouldn't give rides to the boys. Only the girls.

I focused all my time learning a student version of 3d Studio max from a 3dsmax for dummies book. I had my car vandalized for veing one of the few white people in the neighborhood.

Eventually I walked in to an architecture firm and expressed I could use 3dstudio max to do renderings. They looked at my work which was rough and said they'd call me back. While I was in the interview I looked at the images of their projects on the walls. I went home and I recreated one of their development projects from memory in a 3d rendering. I emailed it to them and showed them I could produce their style and needs and did this image to show i was really committed and wanted the job.

They hired me and I've been working there for 20 years. I'm the manager of my department with a team now and I dont think my whiteness had thing to do with it. Hard work and commitment did.

Everyone has a story. That was mine. And noone handed me it. I believe if I hadn't created that image to show my skill and dedication that I would not have gotten a call back.

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MusicToMyEars [S] 3 points ago +3 / -0

Great story. Thanks for the share.

As an author and playwright, I have submitted a ton of projects on spec. Had to do a lot of labor before getting paid. Used to be called “paying your dues”. Yup, life is growth.

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hulda824 2 points ago +2 / -0

spawnling...dynamite story...thanks.